U.S. Footwear Manufacturers Respond to Importers Claim that Duty Elimination Will Not Take Away American Jobs

Earlier this week the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America ("FDRA") released a study showing that the elimination of footwear duties would not harm employment in the domestic footwear industry and that duty elimination for members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership ("TPP") trade agreement would likely result in TTP member nations' footwear industries gaining market share at the expense of countries like China that are not party to TPP. However, Marc Fleischaker, Trade Counsel for the Rubber and Plastic Footwear Manufacturers Association ("RPFMA") which represents domestic footwear manufacturers such as New Balance, Genfoot, and OnGuard Industries, collectively employing more than 4,000 Americans, strongly disagrees and has put out a press release stating that the domestic footwear manufacturing industry would not be able to survive without the import-sensitive tariffs and calling on the Obama Administration to exclude these tariffs from the negotiations with Vietnam in the TPP.